Table Of ContentMerleau-Ponty and Nishida
Cover image: Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506), Splashed Ink Landscape, 1495. Tokyo
National Museum, Tokyo, Japan. (Wikimedia Commons)
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Loughnane, Adam, 1978– author.
Title: Merleau-Ponty and Nishida : artistic expression as motor-perceptual
faith / Adam Loughnane.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2019] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018048809 | ISBN 9781438476117 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781438476131 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Art and philosophy. | Phenomenology. | Philosophy and
religion. | Nishida, Kitaro¯, 1870–1945. | Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908–1961.
Classification: LCC BH39 .L68 2019 | DDC 181/.12—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018048809
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Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction Faith, Flesh, and Basho xiii
Nishida between Religion and Philosophy xxi
Merleau-Ponty between Philosophy and Religion xxv
Artistic Expression East and West xxviii
Ambiguity, Negation, and Faith xxxvii
Chapter Ontology, Ambiguity, and Negation 1
Motor-Perceptual Fabric: Faith and Transitivity 1
Nishida and Phenomenology 8
Substance and Relation: Separation and Non-Obstruction 10
Nishida’s “Absolute Negation” 20
Negation: Chiasm, “Continuity of Discontinuity” 24
Merleau-Ponty Counter Sartre’s Nullité Absolue 34
Nishida: “Absolute Negation” and the “I-Thou” Relation 38
Representation and Perceptual Negation: From Non-Subject
to Non-Object 41
Chapter Perceptual Fabric: Space, Time, and Light 51
Vision and Multi-Perspectivalism: Seeing-Seen 51
Representation, Ocularcentrism, and Multi-Perspectivalism 54
Multi-Perspectival Perception 57
The Three Graces 57
Guo Xi: Angle of Totality 61
“Dragon Veins”: The Visible and Invisible in Daoism 65
vi Contents
Merleau-Ponty: Multi-Perspectivalism and “Depth” 72
Time and Negation I: Ecstatic Temporality 75
Nishida: “Eternal Now” and “Internal-qua-External Perception” 81
Skin and Bones in Rodin and Taiga 87
Multi-perspectivalism Creation and Obstruction 95
The Expanded Body: Vision and Touch 100
Tool as Non-Objective Bodily Extension 104
Space: Distance and Proximity 112
“Distanceless Distance” 116
Light, Tools, and the Aesthetics of Transparent Mediality 121
Molyneux’s Problem: Obstruction and Light 125
Nishida: Full Reversibility and Expression 141
Everything Touching or Nothing at All 144
Chapter Motor-Perceptual Fabric: Time and Motion 149
Sesshū Tōyō: Zen, Vision, and Motion 151
Cézanne’s “Germinations” with the Landscape 163
Time: From Perception to Motor-Perception 169
Motion: Volitional Character of the World 170
Activity-Passivity 170
Ontologies of Expression 175
Motor-Background: “Solicitations” and “Unity of Act and Act” 178
Body and Expression in Time 193
Nishida’s “Historical Body” and “Historical World” 193
Time and Negation II: “Deep Present” and “Absolute Present” 202
From Multi-Perspectival to Multi-Volitional 208
“Optimal Grip” and the Force of Tradition 213
New Art: Creating the Visible 219
Copy and Original 219
“New Art”: Objectivity and Faith 223
Tradition as Historical-Volitional Ecstasis 228
New Solicitations, New Continuity of Act, and Act 230
From Creating the Conditions of Visibility to Creating the
Conditions of Motor-Visibility 235
Vision as Motion 240
Motion as Vision 242
“Acting-Intuition” 244
Color(lessness) and Motion(lessness) 251
Motor-Chromaticity 252
The Color of Negation 259
Contents vii
Chapter Expression as “Motor-Perceptual Faith” 263
“Seeing without a Seer” and Moving without a Mover 263
Motor-Perceptual “Blind Spot” as Dynamic Obstruction 265
Nishida: “Seeing Without a Seer” 268
Mirroring, Mapping, and Seeing 270
History of Motor-Visibility 278
Klee: “End-Forms” and “Formative Forces” 278
The Invisibility of the Self as “Style” and the Temporality of Risk 281
Coherent Deformation and the Force of Tradition 285
Overcoming Reflection, Embracing Risk 290
Holography, Infinity, and Risk 290
Reflection and Faith 297
Spontaneity and Non-Willing 303
The Materiality of Spontaneous Expression: Bernard Leach and
Pottery as Throwing-Thrown 307
The Fallacy of Motor-Perceptual Neutrality and Uni-Directional
Expression 311
Spontaneity and the Temporality of Risk 317
The Limits of Reflection and Doubt: The Pre-Reflective
and the Necessity of Faith 321
Faith, Negation, and Volition in the Pre-Reflective 324
Conclusion: Motor-Perceptual Faith between Philosophy,
Religion, and Art 328
Secularizing the Spiritual: Nishida’s “Inverse Polarity” and
“Interexpression” 329
Spiritualizing the Secular: Merleau-Ponty and “Anatheism” 336
Works Cited and Bibliography 341
Index 355
Illustrations
1.1 Andreas Vesalius, “Optic chiasm,” De humani corporis fabrica.
1543 29
1.2 “Muscle-tendon Chiasm” by the author 31
2.1 Raphael, The Three Graces. 1505 (Musée Condé, Chantilly,
France) 58
2.2 Guo Xi, Early Spring. 1072 (National Palace Museum, Beijing) 63
2.3 Hasegawa Tōhaku, Pine Trees. 1595 (Tokyo National
Museum) 68–69
2.4 Auguste Rodin, The Three Shades. 1886 (Musée Rodin, Paris) 88
2.5 Ike no Taiga, True Views of Mt. Asama. 1776 (Yabumoto
Collection, Japan) 91
3.1 Sesshū Tōyō, Splashed Ink Landscape. 1495 (Tokyo National
Museum) 152
3.2 Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire. 1904 (Philadelphia
Museum of Art) 164
3.3 Méret Oppenheim, Fur Lined Teacup. 1936 (Museum of
Modern Art, New York) 232
4.1 Eadweard Muybridge, The Horse in Motion. 1878 (Harry
Ransom Center, Austin, Texas) 286
4.2 Théodore Géricault, Epsom Derby. 1821 (Musée du Louvre,
Paris) 286
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